Volume Two - Academic Conferences

What amongst the choices alongside should
our educational system support?
(Respondents were asked to rank from most
significantly to least significantly)
Shekhar Murthy and Devi Murthy
Opinions sought in the Survey Range of choices
What amongst the strategies listed alongside
does our educational system use?
(Respondents were asked to rank from
strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Connect life experiences with learning
Involve learners as active participants
Design programs to help participants reach their goals.
Show learners how learning will benefit them
Provide opportunities for sharing of experiences, questions,
and exercises with peers
Accommodate different learning styles by offering a variety
of training methods
Reinforce learning through timely feedback and reflection
Use input from peers to identify learning needs
Keep a personal portfolio and record learning events
Seek feedback on performance from others
Teach others
Keep a to-learn list
Always have something to read
Participate in research
Actively participate in local and national organizations
Actively participate in local multi-disciplinary conferences
Audit performance and improve performance through selfcorrection
The respondents were asked to rank the effectiveness of current educational system from amongst five
choices in the Likert scale (average being the center choice)
Each of the respondents also made one specific suggestion to improve the educational system
Seven of the survey questions were of ranking type, where respondents were forced to exercise onechoice
over the other. The questionnaire was so designed to obtain positive dispersion among tight
and similar choices. In most cases, all attributes indicated as alternatives in the survey questions must
actually be seen as desirable constituents of lifelong holistic education yet, ranking among these
attributes has been sought only to identify key priority components in education. Therefore, readers
are advised that whilst reading the survey indicators, even those ranked as low focus areas, does not
in any way mean that they are insignificant. In fact, they still remain very essential and significant
constituents of a transformative educational system, albeit a bit lower in priority from the respondents’
point of view.
Seventy percent of the sample polled opined that the current educational system is only averagely
effective. Twenty-one percent gave a below-average effectiveness rating. This only reinforces our
view that skills-gap and near-absence of life-skills orientation in our educational system is a hard
reality which needs urgent intervention. Among the significant changes that respondents sought in
educational system are: introduction of experiential, skill-based learning with orientation towards
collaborative work; social values; spiritual foundations to the purpose of life; and above all, build an
attitude of learning to learn with joy and fun. Figure 6 shows the ‘word-scatter’ of major changes that
respondents would like to see in our educational system.
The survey respondents considered dissemination of knowledge and unleashing the true potential of
self as the most significant goals of education. The other preferences that respondents gave for goals
of education are shown in Figure 7.
The respondents suggested that the emphasis of education must be more on practice using the
learning by doing pedagogy. The priority for selecting suitable strategies for the development of
learning components as obtained from the survey is shown in Figure 8.
Specific operational components that can be used to build effective and robust educational systems
were also studied through the survey. Learning methods, such as teaching others and obtaining
inputs from peers to refine learning needs, found more preference amongst the respondents. Self-
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